Donald Trump take note: apparently John McCain is running for Miss America.
In a big speech in Columbus, McCain tells us that he hopes that all our troops will be coming home in 2013. A currently non-existent League of Democracies will be handling Darfur and Al Qaeda will be squashed. In so doing, he anticipates America will agree with his hopes and dreams, and calls this "bipartisanship".
Really? Is Miss Arizona on his policy advisory team? Did he really just stake his foreign policy credentials on a hope for...World Peace?
This is nothing short of a catastrophic miscalculation of the American people by John McCain. Thanks to Bush's consistent lies, voters have had enough of politicians who tell them one thing, and do another. We heard Bush promise every year in his State of the Union address that he would aggressively deal with global warming issues. We were told that we were going to war in Iraq because of al Qaeda, then weapons of mass destruction, and now, Iran.
What John McCain misses--besides the obvious desire that most Americans have to get out of Iraq quickly--is a plan to tell us 1) why he wants to stay in Iraq in the first place, and 2) how, exactly, he plans to achieve the things that he promises. Instead, he stands up with great poise, smiles, waves, crosses his fingers, and hopes it will all be over in 4 years.
For a guy who claims to know foreign policy issues, it shouldn't be asking much to lay out the answers to these questions. After all, he wouldn't just say what he thinks voters want to hear...right? He'd be responsible, and base his speech in...reality...right? Sadly, no. McCain simply does not, and cannot, tell us how any of these things can happen. He attempts to mask the fact that he has no plan for Iraq, by simply hoping that it will be over by the end of his administration and thinks that this will be enough for the American people.
One thing that most interested me when Congressional candidates introduced "The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" was the notion that they developed it because voters had moved beyond asking them if they wanted to get out of Iraq, and were now asking how. These 50 candidates then developed a plan that--regardless of who was President--would put Congress in a powerful position to end the war, and restore the democracy we've lost under Bush. Unlike McCain, they have a plan for responsible withdrawal from Iraq. Unlike McCain, these candidates want to put the Army Field Manual into statute in order to prevent torture. Unlike McCain, they are committed to no permanent bases, and a real GI Bill that takes care of those who answer the call of their country in a time of crisis, not just those who decide to make the military a career.
This is how Democrats intend to fix America. They are so committed to doing it, that they welcome the conversation with voters about priorities, roadmaps and tradeoffs. In return, America is putting them in office, but not without making their expectations clear.
There's a reason Republicans are facing the worst election cycle since Watergate. It's because they, led by John McCain, stand up every day and certify that they think that what George Bush has done for the past 7 years--mislead America and attempt to tell us what we want to hear--will suffice. In their flawed perspective of the world, they think that simply saying something everyone believes in will make them popular and "bipartisan."
At this point, however, John McCain has displayed he has the same plan as a candidate for Miss America to bring about World Peace. In other words, he hopes that if he says it, it will happen, but more importantly, it might increase his chances to wear the crown.
Well, I'm still waiting on Miss Americas from years past to deliver on that whole World Peace thing. Without a plan, McCain's foreign policy has about the same chance of success.